etrain's Team Rankings: Other AAA Districts/Independents

Miscellaneous Districts/Independent

4. LaSalle (12 AAA)

LaSalle is the king of pack running. Their absurd spreads over the years have drawn special love from running geeks like myself. At Carlisle they wowed with an unreal 17 second spread and they rode a tiny 21 second spread to a surprise upset over Cardinal O’Hara at the District 12 Championships, despite the fact that O’Hara took 1-2-3 in a meet that was practically a dual meet. Keep in mind if you take 1-2-3 in a dual meet, assuming your 4th and 5th runners finish the race, you automatically win. LaSalle rallied to get 7 guys in front of O’Hara’s 4th and that gave them a slight 32 to 35 point edge.

However, it was not all magic for the Explorers. At states, their magical spread climbed slightly to 32 seconds and without a true front runner to lead them (their top guy was Sean Princivalle in 63rd) they fell back to 10th place overall. This season, they will hope to pair front running with their same spread (and a little extra experience) and end up on the medal stand.

Although LaSalle was not necessarily a young team in 2014 (three seniors on the state roster), they were not necessarily experienced either. Last season was the first time that District 12 sent two teams instead of one since the state moved to a three classification system in 2012 (side note, imagine if they still had the one team system in place last year and O’Hara had missed states? So glad they changed that rule). Because O’Hara was incredibly strong during that stretch, LaSalle was unable to send a full team to states in 2012 or 2013 (they sent five guys in 2012 by placing their top five within the five individual qualifying spots in an epic performance). Losing those extra spots in 2012 and the full spot in 2013, meant that their 2014 roster was essentially state championship rookies riding a high after their D12 upset.

Keep in mind that since the PCL joined the PIAA, they have had a top 3 team at states every single year. That’s nice odds for the winner of this year’s LaSalle v. O’Hara match up.

9. Cardinal O’Hara (12 AAA)

With the graduation of multi-school record holder Kevin James, O’Hara will turn to a new group to usher in the next era of O’Hara Cross Country. Unlike the bubble district one teams, the Cardinal is in District 12 and, thanks to the district’s two team qualifying spots, should be of the favorites to get back to states. In addition, they return two state medalists, Ryan James and Rob Morro (ET #14 and 15), the only team in AAA who can boast that stat. But for O’Hara, this program has defined itself by not just being good, but being great. Since 2010 OH has been 3rd, 2nd, 2nd, 3rd and 3rd over the last five years. That’s absurd consistency. However, their top three streak may be in jeopardy in 2015.

Although James and Morro should be fantastic this season, the team’s only other varsity returner is Billy Donovan (who will be splitting his time between racing and coaching the Oklahoma City Thunder). Donovan clocked a 16:55 a year ago and added a 10:08 for 3200m on the track (along with a 16:51). The team also should get a lift from Patrick James who split time between varsity and JV last fall. PJ ran 9:57 and 4:30 on the track this spring, the latter of which was strong enough to get him into states out of D12.

Also returning will be Andrew Lombardi who ran 4:46 for a full mile last spring and sleeper Justin Jones who ran 1:57.37 for 800m last spring. Jones has yet to give XC a shot, but this program has turned excellent 800m guys (Belfatto, Smart) into exceptional contributors in the past. It’s something to keep an eye on this year.

There was a split second where I left these guys out of the top 10, but the more I review the roster, the more I like this team’s potential to surprise. If they can put together a consistent and deep top five, they might be back in that top 3 yet again.

GFS (Independent League)

The Independent League should be an interesting battleground in 2015. For starters, the league is losing arguably it’s four best XC runners from a year ago: Sam Ritz, Jaxson Hoey, Josh Hoey and Billy McDevitt. In addition, Malvern Prep, the league’s best team the past two seasons, will start the year with just one returning member of last year’s top 5, Colin Wills. That opens the door for the boys from GFS to head back to the top of the league and reclaim their title.

GFS is one of just a handful of programs to consistently compete, and place well, at the Nike Cross Nationals Northeast Regional and this meet is likely where they will focus their attention again in 2015. Nick Dahl (ET #4), one of the best young two milers in the nation, will lead the squad and has a very realistic chance of becoming an individual qualifier for NXN this fall. GFS has an impressive resume at this meet with Sami Aziz qualifying in 2012 and their entire team qualifying in 2009 (not to mention Max Kaulbach who would have been an individual qualifier in 2007 if they existed at the time).

Surrounding Dahl is a group of up and comers, including Grayson Hepp (ET #43) who was 9th at Independent States last year. Also expected to contribute is Gordon Goldstein who ran 2:00 and 4:38y on the track this past spring after running 16:45 on a fast course last fall. Dan Stassen (4:39 full mile), Colin Riley and Jonnie Plass (10:27/2:02) all have potential to develop in the system. Last year’s squad was a fairly young unit, so we will see if this year’s edition starts to show signs of duplicating the performances of some of the outstanding teams of GFS past.

State College (6 AAA)

The Top 4 returners from last year’s District 6 Championships all wore State College jerseys: Alex Milligan (1st), Nick Feffer (3rd), Owen Wing (8th) and Matt Balogh (10th). That’s a good sign for a team hoping to win yet another district title and maybe return to the state’s top five. The 2015 SC team lost a couple key contributors in Beyerle and Heatwole, but they keep state medalist Milligan (ET #12) and 1:54/4:25 rising junior Feffer (ET #44), putting them on a short list of teams with two medal threats in AAA. Having two front-runners is significantly easier to build around than one, just ask last year’s 5th place team Easton.

In addition to Wing and Balogh, who had great XC seasons, the team will return Anthony Degleris and Joey Feffer who both excelled on the track. Degleris split a 1:56 for the team’s school record relay (and added a 4:39 in his off distance) and should take that confidence to the trails. Feffer, who ran 2:02 as a frosh last year, could be a breakout star on the grass.

State College should be more comfortable this time around at states after a pair of confidence building track seasons, but they still have to prove they can translate success on the oval to success on the varying shapes that are XC courses.

Parkland (11 AAA)

Don’t sleep on Parkland this year. The Red Rangers had some impressive moments a year ago, including a fantastic team run at the Carlisle Invitational. Early on, it seemed possible that Easton and Freedom might take Parkland out of the state qualifying picture, but this squad rallied with a deep, strong pack that held it’s own against Easton: the 5th place finishers at states. With Easton graduating front-runner Colin Abert and half of their Gregs, Parkland has moved into the position of district title favorites, a trophy that the program has a long history of winning.

One of the key contributors to the team’s title hopes will be Michael Geiger who ran 4:32 and 9:50 on the track after a huge breakthrough season in XC that included strong runs at invitationals like DeSales, Carlisle and Paul Short (all as a just sophomore). Dan Kyvelos is also back. He proved he could continuously improve over the course of the season and did his best running at the state championships for the second straight year. Keep an eye on rising sophomore Sam Morgan who ran 16:48 at Paul Short as just a freshman as well as fellow sub 17 minute returners Steven Kaleycik and Jon Ceh.

There is a really nice pack here with the potential to keep the District 11 momentum Easton started last year moving strong.